Extreme Entrepreneurialism

This interview was the introduction to my chapter in the book that I co-authored with Tom Hopkins, Jack Canfield and John Christensen. The interview was done by David Wright.

Today we are talking with Chicke Fitzgerald. She is a serial entrepreneur based in Tampa and has forgotten more about bootstrapping a business than most of us will ever know.

Chicke is the founder and CEO of the Solutionz, a global consultancy and tech incubator founded in 1996. Prior to expanding into the tech incubator space in 2006, Solutionz specialized in strategic growth, merger and acquisition, and multi-channel distribution, with the global travel and hospitality industries as the focus. Chicke is also a top resource to the investment community in the travel, mapping, and location based services arenas.

In 2006, Chicke co-founded LeisureLogix and was instrumental in the design of their game-changing RoadEscapes product. Chicke and her initial partner personally funded the venture through the product design, requirement definition, and the early build phases of the project. After buying out her partner six months into the venture, she pulled together nearly seven million dollars in funding to complete the build-out of the technology and the initial company infrastructure. For the rest of that story, see Fail Fast, I'd Rather Not.

Chicke is passionate about getting the travel mapping and navigation industries to the next level of profitability and reach, generating value for both the traveling consumer and the companies that serve the drive market, including those that travel for "life" reasons, such as attending corporate events, sporting events (participatory and spectator), arts and entertainment events, and both personal planned (wedding, birthday and anniversary celebrations, graduation) and unplanned events (accidents, illness, death) with family and friends.

Her latest business is Solutionz Media Group, founded in January 2009 [in 2017 this was rebranded as The Game Changer Network]. The network broadcasts its radio show (aka podcast) both live and on demand, featuring interviews with authors, celebrities, and experts.

Chicke is leading the way in defining the use of “new, new media” to help professionals build their legacy, both in business and in their personal lives. She is also helping the unemployed, underemployed, self-employed, and those who are concerned about being out of a job through the Transition Solutionz and Resume Live! series.

Chicke, welcome to Bootstrap Business.

Are entrepreneurs born or are they made?

That’s a really good question, David.

I really believe that you are born with a set of talents and that your environment and the various experiences you have along the way can either allow those talents to blossom or it can stifle them.

One example of that, which is critical to entrepreneurialism, is the propensity for risk or, said more plainly, your willingness to try new things where you may not have the appropriate background or all the answers of how to move ahead.

Case in point is my launching a series of Internet radio shows in January [of 2008], when I had absolutely no broadcasting background and frankly, no idea of the mechanics of doing such a thing. Yet three weeks later, after securing the former CEO of CBS Radio, Nancy Widmann, as my first Solutionz Live! guest, I was on the air. Nancy said after our interview that I was a “natural.” Without taking that risk, how would I have known?

I really do see risk-taking as a critical talent for an entrepreneur. With the new network, I had to just dive right in and do it. I had no choice but to bootstrap it, as this is not the environment to be raising capital on an untried idea with an untested talent. So three weeks from idea to inception, a new, new thing was birthed—a social broadcasting network! No one who knows me well is surprised. I’ve been accused of being an idea factory. This time I’ve hit on something that is not only necessary, but I’m having a blast.

On the environment issue, I think that we have all seen examples of an entrepreneur, or what used to be called a “self-made man,” trying to force his or her child to follow in his or her footsteps, only to find out that the child doesn’t have what it takes.

I think that those fundamental talents have to be there as a base to build upon. Even with the right environment, you can’t shape people into entrepreneurs if they don’t have those key talents, including risk-taking and of course, leadership skills and some creativity.

Stay tuned for more excerpts from Bootstrap Business.

Postscript: In addition to being in the midst of launching her next tech venture, Fitzgerald has now done over 400 interviews that are available on the Game Changer network and recently published a book by the same name.